We certainly won't like it, but the undeniable truth is that our government will have to one day do something to generate more tax dollars from gasoline. The mere thought sounds crazy, with $3 per gallon gasoline lording over us like the British government vs. the colonists circa 1775. The fact is that the federal gas tax of 18.4 cents per gallon hasn't gone up since 1993, and as a result, inflation is eating away at the tax revenue our government "needs." Cars are also gaining in fuel efficiency, and gas electric hybrids and more ethanol-powered cars are on the horizon. The bottom line: drivers are paying less and less per year in taxes for the right to drive a car.
Enter researchers from the University of Iowa Public Policy Center, who have developed a system for charging you by the distance traveled, instead of by the gallon of fossil fuel. 2,700 drivers from Maryland, Texas, Iowa, North Carolina, Idaho, and California are testing a device that records the miles driven and gives drivers a receipt for the amount of taxes that would be levied if the experiment was the real deal. The study is being done to gauge public opinion of such a radical shift in policy, while also gathering information from a very diverse group of areas.
As a blogger that loves to drive, this idea stinks to high tax Hell. Politicians are too scared to make the unpopular decision to tax the already high gas prices, so they're spending big research dollars to find an alternative way to stick us with a bill. It's not like people that drive less would get a break. Those people already drive very little, and as a result they buy less gas, so they pay less taxes.
[Source: USA Today via The Truth about Cars]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Jeremy @ Sep 25th 2007 11:13AM
Here's an idea ... stop spending so much of our freaking tax money and this will stop being a problem!
joe @ Sep 25th 2007 12:02PM
Exactly.
Maybe if we didn't spend $400 billion dollars on Iraq we wouldn't have a budget crisis. Bush is asking another $100 billion for FY2008.
Jeremy @ Sep 25th 2007 4:10PM
Ok, not going to lie, I used to support this war. I think that we should have done something to prevent another 911, but 6 years later and 400 billion is enough. It's getting out of hand!
Besides all of the other rediculous spending our government continues to increase every year. We just need to fire them all and start from scratch. It's rediculous. They are all cowards that want nothing more than power and money. Our forefathers would be turning in their graves!
paul34 @ Sep 25th 2007 11:13AM
Oh boohoo. Welcome to progress, Mr. Old Man Government. Don't like it? Too bad.
The last thing this overbloated, overweight, and overbearing government needs is even more taxes to line the pockets of politicians with. Remember, every time you raise taxes, more gets mysteriously "lost."
If they want money, just use the income tax. It's not like its used for much else.
Or you know, maybe clean up all those billions of dollars that get "lost."
Screw you, Uncle Sam. Learn to wear some cotton instead of cashmere and leather all the time.
Alex @ Sep 25th 2007 11:15AM
this is stupid. robbing peter to pay paul. taking money from one pocket to put it in the other.
Seminole @ Sep 25th 2007 11:16AM
I honestly think that nobody in the Government, Republican or Democrat, has taken a basic intro to finance or economics class.
I say we make the whole Congress go take those classes, maybe some basic fiscal common sense would help.
rem83 @ Sep 25th 2007 11:16AM
...or just raise gas taxes. I'd rather pay more at the pump (and gain the benefits of a more efficient vehicle) than have a little box printing receipts sitting on my dashboard. They'd probably make you buy the paper for the receipts as well. Small, efficient cars do not have as high an infrastructure cost as larger, heavier and more thirsty vehicles, why tax them the same?
Kaptain75329 @ Sep 25th 2007 2:26PM
Precisely because smaller cars don't use as much gas.
Therefore, they don't pay the same amount of tax as those that consume more while traveling the same distance. I'm sure I missed the quip about fairness somewhere from these government twats; the only "creativity" exhibited by these creeps is the creation of new taxes and cute (read: often irritating & typically draconian) ways to collect these routine rapes on our livelihood.
Ya know.. When I have a shortfall in my budget, I cut spending and live within my means. Gee, if only I could just point a gun at my boss and "tax" him extra because it's only "fair".
To add insult to injury, we're told it's for our own good when we don't even get a say in how this money is spent or even have easy access to information that would tell us where the money went in the first place.
At least a thief is more honest than a politician: when he steals your money, he doesn't demand you thank him.
Mike @ Sep 25th 2007 11:17AM
The problem with something like this is that it's going to be on TOP of the gas tax. If they eliminated the gas tax and changed to a per mile system you might actually save some money in some cases. Otherwise it's a double tax.
In Virginia we already pay a car tax (based on value of personal property every year). They did lower the tax, but they didn't do it by actually lowering the tax, they give you a tax credit to the full price of the tax so that if they want to they can decide to remove the rebate to the tax that you still owe.
I don't have a problem with a use tax, but don't implement it in a way that hits me two times. Implement a mile tax, but make sure that that money goes into the transportation system.
500 @ Sep 25th 2007 1:29PM
Exactly. And while the Federal gas tax may have stayed the same, the states have been steadily raising gas taxes. The cowards in the Maine legislature last year passed an AUTOMATIC yearly gas tax increase pegged to inflation. As inflation in recent years has been driven mainly by energy prices, we get a double whammy as oil prices go up. Mass also has a personal property tax on cars, and Maine has an obscenely high vehicle excise tax you pay every year.
I wouldn't object to a higher gas tax if it were done INSTEAD of Federal fuel economy standards, which are full of hidden costs to industry and the consumer.
jb @ Sep 25th 2007 11:19AM
so somebody driving a gas guzzling SUV or sportscar would be the exact same tax as somebody who is driving a economic car? That is insane!!
J @ Sep 25th 2007 12:08PM
Word. thats the beauty of a fuel based road tax. If people want to continue to buy enourmous SUVs and pick up a large portion of the DOT's tab for the rest of us that is fine by me.
Brill @ Sep 25th 2007 12:17PM
I'm not so sure saying SUV/(CUV) and sports cars should just be cast to pay higher tax just becuase of what they are. GRANTED most SUV's/Sports cars get horrible MPG, true. but there are examples of such that aren't that bad, and it more depends on how you drive them. A lotus can get decent MPG if driven normal, Vette on the highway is up here (again, keeping it close to speed limits), my buddies S2000 is decent highway, even my V8 sports car is above 25 mpg highway at 80 mph, thats close to what my parents got in their V6 Accord (driving style is VERY important i know).
i'd much rather see something based on the mpg you're getting. but thats sort of based on type of driving, city vs highway vs mix.
really no clear cut answer...i'd say raise the tax on gas like others have said...but no one would dare say that in an election year or ever probably.
Snowdog @ Sep 25th 2007 12:41PM
There is already a tax based on the MPG you get. It is called a gas tax. Which they simply need to grow some balls and raise, rather than stick a GPS in every car and set up another bureaucracy to collect. AGGHGH this is insane.
Can't people vote these idiots out? If I were running I would think it easy to point out the insanity of this plan.
nissanfreak87 @ Sep 25th 2007 11:20AM
taxes are a necessary evil in this world, I pay them to help this country function, but I still don't like it. I'm interested to see the cost per mile of the tax idea vs. the old tax, would there still be a gas tax if this was implemented? etc...
It's not a bad idea for the populous, just for people who like to drive a lot, which would be most of us on this site
Paul @ Sep 25th 2007 11:20AM
God forbid the federal government address what they spend this money on. I'm being taxed a s**tload on my new car via personal property tax in the state of Virginia. As it is, this tax is ridiculous since they only provide (marginal) relief up to a $20,000 window. The average price of a new car today hovers around $28,000 according to NADA. So how come VA hasn't adjusted for inflation there??????
I'm hearing deafening silence on the other end despite my numerous letters to the county board, my representatives and the VA state assembly. But then again, it's all about life, liberty and the race to the bottom these days, isn't it? We all have our own opinions on the war, naturally, but there's a hell of a lot of money being spent there that could go towards fixing, among other things, the infrastructure we drive on day in and day out. Just a thought...
Kaptain75329 @ Sep 25th 2007 3:59PM
Which is why you see so many out-of-state plates in VA with parking passes to Virginian apartment complexes and condos. When I received my car tax bill last month, I went out to affix the new sticker right next to the yellow inspection certification on the windshield. Off-topic: renewing the safety inspection is fun too, especially when *only* the state's paid monkey is allowed to remove the old sticker and apply the new one - you're SOL every time they scratch up your dash with that huge ass knife.
Anyway, walking in the parking lot, I started paying attention to the other cars there just to see how many other early birds paid the tax like I did. I didn't find too many. I found something else that had previously been spared my scrutiny: out-of-state tags, and I'm not talking about a couple of cars from Maryland. One comes from as far as Wisconsin.
Turns out that in the county where I live (specifically the municipality within the county) a car must be taxed if it's "garaged" in the "jurisdiction of collection" for 30 days or more. However, if it's registered (or even co-registered) to a valid out-of-state address of yours (say you're military and your spouse lives elsewhere while you're stationed here) then it's up to the state to prove it was "garaged" for more than 30 days before they can levy and collect the personal property tax.
The big kicker here is that the cost of making such a case is notably more expensive and time-consuming than simply collecting the tax, and since the county doesn't have the same resources available to them as would be case on the state level, the county keeps letting it go. Effectively the county has to sue you in a court of law, and while you would absorb all that cost in the event the county could make a winning case, the time, expense, and manpower required to make this a standard practice across the board isn't worth the return to a government entity that's already back-logged and inefficient to begin with, especially when the bad PR from suing poor people is taken into consideration. Of course, this varies by county through the state, since it's the counties that collect the tax, not the Commonwealth of Virginia.
mooj @ Sep 25th 2007 11:25AM
i patiently await the breathing tax.
Torqued @ Sep 25th 2007 11:28AM
Don't hold your breath. haha.
CJ @ Sep 25th 2007 11:26AM
What stupid is the development cost going into this. Also the other ramifications of having my car constantly monitored (will it monitor my speed too?) What if all the time is driving around back country roads, does that person have to pay as much as the highway driver? Dumb.